In April 2011 I was contacted through a friend by the Landlady and Landlord of The Edgumbe Hotel to undertake full all night investigation in to recent spate of paranormal activity that was being witnessed by all living at the inn. Please find with kind permission a report summary written by Jon Small who was one of the investigation team.

Edgcumbe Hotel investigation 13th May 2011.

Edgcumbe hotel is situated in the village of Bere Alston in Devon. My trip there took me through beautiful lanes filled with bluebells. On arriving in the village my immediate feelings on the hotel was that the night was going to be interesting, and goodness me we weren’t disappointed!

We went to the hotel and met the hosts who were very hospitable and the pub itself had a very old fashioned atmosphere which was lovely, in the pub were regulars who had probably been visiting there for years. After our tour and setting up our equipment we decided that once again it would be boys against girls as we think that males and females in groups get very good results. We had a tour of the building and then set off for our first area.

The Kitchen.

Our first area to investigate was the kitchen. Kev, Jason, Chris (on his first investigation), Martin, Dave and I (Jon) set up our equipment and settled down for our vigil. I was very soon drawn to a lady who presented herself to me as Florence. She told me that she was 86 when she passed in around 2003, and also told me that she was drawn to one of the males in our group which I interpreted as Chris, with this, Chris went very quiet and seemed to be a bit choked up. I continued communicating with Florence who seemed a lovely soul and I asked Chris if he may have known this lady and he said that it appeared with the information I gave was his Grandmother. Another lady came on to the scene that also appeared to be associated with Chris and gave Kev the name of Elizabeth she told me that she was a children’s nurse but not resident of the building. Chris confirmed that this was his Great grandmother. We also had a male come through by the name of Albert who again Chris said that he associated with. This vigil seemed to be a question and answer time for Chris even though we were looking for other spirits, but as he was a sceptic this was a great start to the evening. I was sorry that I upset Chris a little but I also hope that it gave him some comfort with his family around him. The ladies told me that they wanted to protect Chris from a male but there was more to come from this later.

2nd Floor Bedrooms.

The second floor bedrooms consisted of three rooms one of which was now being used by one of the host’s children. On our tour three of us had felt uneasy in the Childs room and I had a really bad tightening across my chest.

One of the rooms was used for storage but the hosts felt that they had very uneasy experiences there. We had settled in the Childs room and it wasn’t long before we had a few small knocks. I picked up on the spirit of a man who gave me the name of John. He said that he was something to do with a local mine and gave me the year of 1752. John seemed to be in some sort of managerial position or even an owner as he gave me the impression that he was not of the ‘’miner type’’. We asked lots of questions and John said that he did not mine tin but it appeared to me as it was a yellow type of ore and gave me the letter ‘’A’’. Martin confirmed that they used to mine Arsenic in the mines locally so he was going to investigate this further. John told me that he resented the people being in this room as it was the room that he had passed over in and I am fairly sure that this was the man that was causing problems through the house. John appeared to be a portly man who had died when he was 61 years of age through a heart attack. The atmosphere in this room was quite cold and John seemed to be a very troubled soul, but again, more to come from this later.

The Lounge.

The lounge for me was fairly quiet but Martin had the experience of feeling very wobbly here. I was drawn to one area of the lounge as was one of the others but I feel that this could have been a vortex area and just highly charged there. Chris was stood in one part of the room and was getting some strange results on his equipment so I went towards him to see what I could pick up. I picked up on the two ladies that we had met earlier in the kitchen and it seemed that they were putting a protective cloak around Chris, again, they said they were protecting him from a male, and Albert was in the background again so I thought that this may have been the male but Chris said there would have been no reason why Albert would have wanted to hurt him. Kevin picked up on another male in the room but apart from that there was no other activity.

The Bar area and Cellar.

This area was very strange as it appeared that one side of the building was active and one side wasn’t. We were later told by the hosts that they thought that the building may have once been two houses which would have explained why all the evidence appeared on one side. We took it in turns to go into the cellar and I went with Kev. The whole area was very flat but Kev thought that the cellar was once much bigger which was later deemed right by the hosts. We returned to the bar area and we all felt that there was some sort of movement in or around the bar but nothing forthcoming. I was attracted to one corner of the bar seating area by a snug and picked up on a gentleman who was sat in his favourite seat, he gave me the name of ‘’Cleggy’’ or ‘’Leggy’’ and he was 85 when he passed of natural causes and he also gave me the date of his passing of 1982, so we are hoping that someone will know of him. The funny thing was that when Kev asked if he could get him a drink the word ‘’Stout’’ came to me, so that might be a clue for someone.

First floor bedrooms.

On the first floor there were two bedrooms and there were reports of activity in one room that we weren’t aware of. We went to the first room and the area seemed totally flat. There was high EMF reading coming from one alarm radio which could have given the feelings of something being there. Our advice was it was time for a new one. When we went to the second room we picked up a little activity in one corner and three of the group went to the corner and all had incredible pains in their back which was strange, but Dave got the impression that the person picked up there was hunched over or may have had a deformity. I was standing at the foot of the bed and picked up on two boys who were there. They gave me the names of Alexander and Richard and the ages of 5 & 9 respectively. They said that they lived in the house but had passed within a short time of each other and the reason I was given was ‘’ The Pox ‘’. The date given was around the 1850’s so maybe there are some records of this. The children also said that they were scared of ‘’the man’’ and spent their time keeping away from him, so we thought that this maybe John who we met upstairs.

Free time.

In our free time, Jason and I decided to go back to the second floor bedroom as we felt that there was more to get from there. We settled down and it wasn’t long before we were in contact with the male known to us as John. We started asking him questions and he seemed very forthcoming with communicating with us. Jason asked if there was a reason why he was trying to scare people there and the message we got was that people used to abuse him verbally and he was shunned where he lived. I asked John if he had ever married and his answer was no. Jason asked if there was someone he was in love with but couldn’t be with, the answer was yes. I asked if the person he loved was another man and he said yes. Jason asked if he was shunned because people knew of this and there was no answer. I asked if there was a member in our group that reminded him of his love and he said yes. We then ran through the names of our group and when we said the name Chris he said yes, which we deduced that’s why Chris had so much protection around him this night. We asked why he stayed in the house and he said he was ashamed of what he was and afraid of being judged but he wanted to go. We asked if he wanted our help, he said yes. There were quite a few other knocks in the room and we saw a black shape go from our room to the other bedroom and we thought it may have been the resident cat but when we investigated there was nothing there. Jason and I decided to speak to Kev as we felt that a clearing was needed here to help not only the hosts and their family but to help John too. We went to the bar area where we met up with hosts to compare our experiences and we had some very interesting comparisons which was very pleasing. Kev spoke to the hosts about the spirit of John and asked if they would like us to help him over and they agreed that we should. After giving our evidence Kev, Jason, Clare, Chris and I returned to John’s bedroom. We settled in the room and I again asked for contact with John. It wasn’t long before we made contact and again I asked John if he wanted help, he replied yes. I told him that he would not be judged by anyone and he would be able to be with his family again. I asked again if he still wanted our help, his reply was yes. Kev asked him if he could see a bright light, his reply was yes. Kev asked if he could go towards the light, he said yes. Kev asked if he could see anyone in the light that he could recognise, he replied yes. Kev asked if it was a member of his family and he said yes. Kev then asked him to reach out and take the hand of that person and he replied yes, he then asked John to go with that person into the light to meet with his family and loved ones, again he replied yes. We left it a moment and then Kev dowsed for John but had no reply. I was then asked to do the same and again I had no reply. There were very high emotions in that room and Kev and Chris were visibly moved. The whole area seemed different and the air was much warmer and cosier.

Conclusion.

Well, where do I start? The Edgcumbe hotel investigation was an immense investigation. It was a very draining experience for most of the team and I am glad that we were able to help. I feel that the male John was a very troubled spirit and only wanted help. Thank you to our hosts for the night and I hope that John has now found peace with his loved ones.